2 lunch boxes for each kid. Fourth grader has four water bottles because he’s constantly losing them at school. First grader only has two because she almost never loses them.

With two lunch boxes, there’s always a clean one ready to go. Also, I prep lunches the night before.

Anonymous wrote:1 lunchbox and 1 water bottle. Pro tip - I clean both immediately when he comes home from school and they dry in the rack. He tells me about his day while I’m doing this. Started this habit because it was too much to do in the morning with everything else.

SAHM of an only.

I have two kids. We have four lunch boxes, 4 small sauce containers, 2 lunch bags, 4 ice packs, and 752 water bottles. My children said no one uses a separate container for snacks because they frequently take their snacks outside to eat and nobody wants to carry a container or reusable back around.

Anonymous wrote:1 lunchbox and 1 water bottle. Pro tip - I clean both immediately when he comes home from school and they dry in the rack. He tells me about his day while I’m doing this. Started this habit because it was too much to do in the morning with everything else.

This sounds like a great idea but we are often dropping the backpack and driving off to activities. And when we get home it’s dinner prep.

1 lunchbox and 1 water bottle. Pro tip - I clean both immediately when he comes home from school and they dry in the rack. He tells me about his day while I’m doing this. Started this habit because it was too much to do in the morning with everything else.

One lunch box and two water bottles. I try to pack lunch before dinner. The lunchbox doesn’t get very dirty though. I don’t use ice packs. When the lunchbox gets left at school then she gets a paper bag until she brings her lunchbox home. Luckily, it’s always been found the next day or two.

My 3rd grader has 1 lunch box and 2 water bottles. She washes her lunch box immediately she gets home. The bottles go into the dishwasher every couple of days. If the lunch box is dirty in the morning ( i.e. she forgot to wash it when she got back from school), she washes in the morning. A couple of times a year, she forgets her lunch box or bottle at school. We have a back up general lunch box ( versus her own) at home we have used, but this rarely happens.

This arrangement was the same last year when she was in 2nd grade.

1 lunchbox, 1 water bottle per kid.

I do keep a few extra bottles stored away just in case. DD likes to thrift shop with her friends and will pick up new or gently used bottles at Goodwill or wherever if we need extra.

2nd grader - 1 lunch box, 2 bento boxes and like 5 water bottles. The water bottles tend to get lost (dad not great at making sure they aren't left on a sports field or in his car) and then are found eventually so that's why we have so many.

Anonymous wrote:1 of each. Same ones as last year.

Right?! Now if any of these people with multiple lunchboxes have “Climate Change Is Real” signs out …

I have three kids: 3rd, 6th, and 8th. 1 insulated lunch bag and 1 water bottle per child. Each night when they get home from school they are responsible for getting their lunch bag and bottles out of their backpacks and putting them on the kitchen counter. It's rare that they need washing - if something has spilled, a wipe down from a wet cloth does the trick.

Of course we still scramble from time to time, and I have backup paper bags ready if one forgets their stuff at school. If they forget their bottle, that's on them. They can get by in a day without water at school.

I am a child abuser who keeps lunch in the fridge all night before.

One of each.

We have a rule that you empty your lunch box and clean it and put it on the drying rack when you get home. Always. If kid has activities or is getting sick or something, I do it. We do it on Friday too so it doesn't get forgotten in the backpack and then you have a 2 day old dirty lunch box you have to clean on Sunday. I also hate washing a dirty lunch box in the morning and I figured this out in K and we created a system so that never happens.

Regarding things getting lost, I intentionally do not buy backups for the lunch box. If the lunchbox gets left somewhere, kid does school lunch or can pack a lunch in a regular Tupperware (which means no cold items since it's not insulated) either until it's found or we buy a replacement. We have had to replace a few things over the years, but not much, because my kid hates school lunch and that's pretty motivating to make sure she puts her lunchbox back in her backpack.

We do have a couple back up water bottles but they are cheaper and not insulated, so not as liked. Again, this incentivizes taking care of the "good" water bottle. We've replaced water bottles more frequently than the lunch bag/bento box, but it still makes it home about 90% of the time.

1 lunch box (it doesn't get that dirty and all the food is in containers anyway) + 1 squirreled away in a closet if the current one gets lost, 2 water bottles. Our DD (7) leaves water bottles at school pretty often, so we have a backup.

1 lunch box, 1 bento, 1 thermos, 37 million water bottles